James Frey

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT JAMES FREY - PAGE 5

Recently Oprah Winfrey has been making headlines by first building up and then crushing down author James Frey after it was discovered that parts of his memoir, "A Million Little Pieces," had been fabricated. Why is she being celebrated for admitting a mistake? Why does the world seem to hang on her every last word and action? It seems abundantly clear to me that Oprah does whatever it is that will make herself look good at any given point in time. When Frey first appeared on Oprah's show to promote his book, it was Oprah who heaped praise upon herself for selecting this book for her book club.

Jari Kral's youngest daughter, addicted to heroin since she was a teen, lived three months in a car during the winter of 2002. Kral, a longtime Chicago-area resident, filled years of calendars with scrawled notations about her daughter's descent into street drugs, rehab, theft, assault and drug arrests. The daughter, now 22, was locked in Cook County Jail last fall on charges of trying to hijack a car and vowing to kill the woman inside if she didn't get out. The daughter's addiction to drugs was as real and overwhelming as the calendars and copies of police reports stacked on Kral's desk--as anguished as a mother's love, and as unrelenting.

Creative non-fiction is an odd literary animal in which a writer uses a novelist's techniques to bring vivid life to a story that's true and accurate. At least, it's supposed to be true and accurate. But, as the controversy over "A Million Little Pieces" -- James Frey's Oprah-endorsed, best-selling memoir on substance abuse -- shows, what's portrayed as fact sometimes turns out to be fancy. In his book, published in hardcover by Doubleday in 2003 and in paperback by Anchor in 2004, Frey described himself as an alcoholic, addict and criminal wanted in three states.

Julia Keller's feisty defense of "A Million Little Pieces" ("Sorry, Oprah. It's still a great book," Jan. 30) did not go unnoticed. Here are some of the best letters, or at least the ones with the least profanity. CHICAGO -- Finally, a voice of reason! The book is so well written and, at times, so preposterous as to be unbelievable -- but then, it is a memoir, not an autobiography. I am amazed at the naysayers' piety. The man has a talent. I was reading the book in a local restaurant and the waitress, whom I had never laid eyes on before, proceeded to tell me how much it had touched her life and how, because of it, she had been able to get and stay sober -- now that's something to write home about!

During his class on contract and tort remedies at DePaul University law school the other day, professor Bruce Ottley was asked by a student about one of the recent lawsuits filed against James Frey and the publisher of Frey's quasi-memoir "A Million Little Pieces." The federal court suit in Seattle is seeking compensation for, among other things, "the lost value of the readers' time." "The question that came up is, How do you value somebody's time in reading a book? OK, I spent X number of hours reading this book.

As a longtime admirer of Oprah and her show, I feel compelled to say how disappointed I was with her recent treatment of James Frey. I understand the resentment that is born from the revelation of fiction in an ostensibly non-fiction story in which one has invested oneself emotionally. I also understand that Oprah has a responsibility to her fans, that they place their trust in her not to mislead them. But, while I am certainly disappointed in Frey for not admitting from the beginning that there were fabrications, I am far more disturbed by the mob mentality bent on his destruction.

The author of a best-selling memoir whose truth was called into question this week acknowledged Wednesday that he made up details of his life. But Oprah Winfrey, who called in during author James Frey's appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live," broke her silence on the book she recommended last fall for her book club, saying the allegations were "much ado about nothing." Frey, the author of "A Million Little Pieces," which has been the best-selling book in the country since Winfrey selected it, said in his CNN appearance that he never expected his memoir to come under such close scrutiny.

Legions of dedicated readers who spent lunch breaks and late nights devouring the now-disputed memoir "A Million Little Pieces" spent Tuesday either angry at--or supportive of--author James Frey, whose story of addiction and redemption captivated millions. "I'm so upset that this guy might have made up some of this stuff," said Laura Kepes, 36, of Glencoe. Kepes said she was "obsessed" with the memoir and couldn't wait to read Frey's sequel, "My Friend Leonard." She said she had recommended the books to friends.

A table for four at the Berghoff? Yes, you could score that--on a permanent, take-home basis. For a few bucks more, you'd also have a shot at sturdy chairs, murals, stained glass, beer steins and a framed menu from 1939. Billed as the city's oldest restaurant, the Berghoff, due to close Feb. 28, announced Monday that bits of the B will be sold at a public auction. The all-day event at the 107-year-old eatery, at 17 W. Adams St., will be held March 4. Fittingly, for a family whose traditions stretch from the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 to the wonders of a Wi-Fi city, the memorabilia--from coat racks to floor ashtrays--was posted Monday atwww.

James Frey is a memspirationist. What is memspiration? It's a craft, it's a con, it's big business, and I'll get back to it in a minute. Frey, as you probably know, is the author of "A Million Little Pieces," a blockbuster memoir of his life as a jailbird, a junkie and the perpetrator of more bad behaviors than Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton could dream up together at 2 a.m. Frey drank. He did drugs. He did hard time. He vomited. He was, he writes with the memspirationist's unique blend of pride and remorse, a "Criminal."